DESCRIPTION OF A MELON AND PINE PIT. 263 



portions, so that the temperature may be permanently preserved, the 

 ground being made to descend a little towards the wall on every side, 

 that the bed in shrinking may rather fall towards than from the walls; 

 and I entertain no doubt but that the perpetual ingress of warm air, 

 even without an internal leaf-bed, will prove sufficient to preserve pine- 

 apple-plants without the protection of mats, except in very severe 

 weather. I have nothing further to add, but that the melon plants 

 are the most healthy and luxuriant that I ever possessed, and that their 

 fruit is swelling with more than ordinary rapidity. I annex (plate 6) a 

 sketch of a section and plan of the pit, without which, I fear, the preceding 

 account would scarcely prove intelligible. 



The perforations in the interior of the wall, are from eighteen to nearly 

 twenty inches distant from each other, and they do not begin till the fifth 

 row of bricks from the bottom. When the pit is intended for early cucum- 

 bers or melons, and the lower part is consequently to be filled with leaves 

 or tan, the holes in the bricks should only be made above the surface of 

 whatever may be put into the pit, or, if previously made below, must be 

 closed. 



REFERENCES TO PLATE 6. 



A. Sliding lights. D. Hollow wall. 



B B. Wall plates. E. Dung linings. 



C. Water groove. F. Air funnels. 



L. UPON THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CURVILINEAR 

 IRON ROOFS TO HOT-HOUSES. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, October 1st, 1822.] 



A WISH has more than once been expressed to receive from me an 

 account of my opinion of the comparative advantages and disadvantages 

 of the iron curvilinear, and common hot-house roofs of sliding lights, in the 

 culture of the pine-apple, as soon as experience should have enabled me 

 to give it. I am now, I believe, in possession of sufficient information to 

 enable me to give an opinion with some degree of confidence, having had 

 the experience of three summers, in which I have nearly sacrificed more 

 than two hundred very fine fruiting pine-apple plants in my curvilinear 

 roofed hot-house. I have, however, ultimately succeeded to the full 

 extent of my hopes and expectations, and I give a decided preference to 

 the curvilinear roof. I must nevertheless admit, that it has some defects, 

 which I shall endeavour to point out, and set in opposition to its per- 

 fections. 



